Dennor ❦ A not-so common fairytale

Resting

Diving underneath the surface of the brown, disgusting water, Lukas was searching for any sight of the dane again 'Mathias, where are you?' He wondered, struggling to see anything as the water was too dirty

He was about to give up and go to the surface for air, when he once again spotted those blonde locks. 'There he is,' Lukas thought, and quickly swam towards him. His lungs were burning from the lack of air, but he didn't want to risk loosing Mathias again.

As Lukas got closer, he noticed something was holding onto Mathias' ankle, seemingly dragging him down. Assuming it was an accessory that had gotten caught around his foot while he was swimming, Lukas didn't pay much attention to it as he was nearly there.

It wasn't until he grabbed a hold of Mathias' arm to stop him from sinking further, that Lukas noticed that it wasn't an accessory hanging around Mathias' ankle, but a hand. 'What the hell?!' Lukas thought, flinching away as precious air escaped his lips.

Despite being frightened by the hand, Lukas didn't want to leave Mathias to die, so he hurriedly swam after him again.
He felt light-headed and dizzy, as he was lacking air and needed to breathe.

Yet again grabbing Mathias, this time holding an arm around his waist, Lukas tried to swim upwards, only to find that whatever holding onto the unconscious dane was stronger than it appeared to be, and even dragged Lukas down along with Mathias.

Panicking, he kicked the hand holding onto Mathias' ankle, to which the creature it belonged to looked up and into Lukas' eyes.
Lukas stared. He was aware of the stories of the nøkk living in lakes and swamps, but he never expected to see one with his own eyes.

Shaking his head out of his thoughts, Lukas quickly started to swim back to the surface, a firm grip around Mathias to not loose him again.
He wasn't even sure if the dane was alive, but he had to risk it.

The nøkk was close behind them, Lukas had to kick its hand away more than once as he swam.
He hadn't realised he had gone so deep, and his vision got more blurry than before as he was swimming.

He didn't even realise that the nøkk had swam back down into the water, still thinking it was trying to catch up with him and Mathias.
Finally, he reached the surface, heaving for air.

He didn't waste more time than he had to tho, before he started swimming towards the shore where his scrip was waiting. He made sure to keep Mathias' head over the water, assured by hearing the small breaths coming from the still unconscious dane.

He pushed Mathias up on the shore first, before pulling himself up. He collapsed beside Mathias, panting, his lungs aching. 'How long was I underwater?' He wondered, noticing the sun above him going down.

He turned to Mathias, and forced himself to sit up. He lightly punched his shoulder, trying to wake him up. "Mathias," He said. No answer.
"Mathias, wake up!" Lukas yelled, pushing his hands down on the Dane's chest by accident.

As he did so, he noticed that the Dane flinched.
A few seconds after, Mathias coughed up water, furrowing his brows in discomfort.
Lukas scooted away, giving Mathias space, before Mathias' eyes fluttered open. "Lukas..?" He muttered, his voice cracking slightly.

Lukas, who had hurriedly went to get his scrip, sat back down on his knees beside Mathias. "Talk later, we need to get going," He said. He didn't want to fall asleep on the shore, knowing that the nøkk was still here somewhere.

Mathias nodded, his mind mostly clouded with tiredness as he forced himself to stand up. "Where are we going?" He asked, following Lukas who was already walking back into the forest they had first come from.